The Cronulla High School junior men's surfing team will be hard to beat at the upcoming 2019 Ocean & Earth NSW High School State Titles after star surfing students Jarvis Earle and Kalani Vandepolder finished first and second at the recent South Sydney Regional Scholastic Titles at Maroubra Beach.
Jarvis showed again that he is the dominant surfer in his age division, also winning the Sydney Southern Beaches Regional under-16s title and taking out the Air Asia Big Air Award.
In the four surfing divisions (senior, junior, male and female) the top two surfers progress to the NSW state school titles and make the team MR Cup division. The top two surfers from the same school will be the winning MR Team. Only one school team per division advances to the NSW state titles at Coffs Harbour.
As in past years, Surfing NSW will manage the NSW school titles in conjunction with the Woolworths NSW Junior State Surfing Titles and will see 136 of the best junior surfers in NSW compete across four divisions for the prestigious state championship.
Cronulla High School will also form the MR Shield team in the junior girls after Sophie Cornock finished second and with schoolmate Pippi Simpson in fourth place.
Woolooware High School were not left behind, also doing the double. Woolooware will compete at Coffs Harbour in the senior boys team after Jay Brown and Fin Padman finished second and third behind Rose Bay's hot shot Grayson Hinrichs.
In the senior girl's division, April Davey will surf for Kirrawee High School in the open division after finishing second. But Woolooware High School will represent Sydney South in the teams event having the best two-surfer result with Claudia Kennedy finishing fifth and a trio of Woolooware girls finishing equal seventh.
In commemorating the 10-year anniversary since the inception of the Cronulla Beaches Surfing Reserve, photographers are being encouraged to join in the celebrations by entering a photo competition designed to capture the 'Spirit of Surfing' within the reserve area.
The Reserve acknowledges the surfing way of life and celebrates the riding of waves and the significant contribution that local surfers and surfing culture plays in our community.
Images must be taken between June 1 and August 30 and must capture the local surfing lifestyle. In addition, the photograph must showcase one of the significant locations in the Reserve.
Details: Cronulla National Surfing Reserve Facebook page.
The Cronulla beaches have had plenty of swell this week but conditions have been less than favourable with an onshore windstream making things pretty average.
The days are very short still with the early morning conditions not letting you get many in before school or work and at low tide the banks are very average.
The forecast sees this 3-4ft east ,south east swell to drop a little into the weekend when a new nor-east swell kicks in peaking on Monday Tuesday at 4-6ft.
The best news for local surfers is that the wind will swing tomorrow to sou-west and should blow offshore for the whole week giving us a great start to the winter surf season.
Brazilian Filipe Toledo and Aussie Sally Fitzgibbons won the Oi Rio Pro, Stop No. 5 on the 2019 World Surf League Championship Tour last weekend.
The beach came alive throughout the Oi Rio Pro with thousands of fans each day, including the final at Barrinha in four-to-six foot waves. Fitzgibbons and Toledo surfed a full day from the Quarterfinals to the Final, resulting in their third CT victories in Brazil.
Toledo successfully repeated last year's victory at Barrinha with dominant performances against Jordy Smith (ZAF) in the Final, Frederico Morais (PRT) in the Semifinals, and Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) in the Quarterfinals.
Fitzgibbons' win is her first CT victory since 2017 and her third in Brasil (2012, 2014, 2019). This season the Australian superstar has secured consistent results with four Final Series appearances, including two Finals. Fitzgibbon's win vaults her to No. 1 in the world, surpassing Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) and Carissa Moore (HAW) on the Jeep Leaderboard.
"It's definitely one of those feelings where you feel so alive," said Fitzgibbons. "The whole process of running down through the crowd cheering and paddling out is pretty sick when it all comes together. After all these years it's still special and to be in the Final with a friend like Carissa (Moore) is pretty amazing. It could've gone either way and it just went my way today, it was unbelievable, this is insane."
The world's best surfers will now go to next and best stop on the 2019 World Surf League Championship Tour, Corona Open J-Bay. The event, Stop No. 6 on the CT, opens on July 9 and runs until July 22, 2019 and will be broadcast LIVE on WorldSurfLeague.com and Facebook.com/WSL.